Microsoft's Antivirus Scores Soar

Megalith

Megalith

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It was reported this week that Windows Defender has achieved a huge increase in score and ranking. It still has a long way to go if it intends to compare to the likes of Kaspersky and Bitdefender, however.

Other than ESET going from 14 to 14.5 points, Microsoft was the only success story this time around. Its 9.5 point score in the previous test didn't even make the cutoff for certification. This time around, Microsoft brought up its protection score by 2.5 points and its performance score by 2.0 points, for a new total of 14 points overall.
 
People can hate on MS all they like, but this is a good thing. I also think MS did great by including this bundled with the OS, some protection is better than nothing for most users. Signs that MS is still improving its AV is also good, they are still pretty new overall the the desktop space with this, and I think they have come a long way in a short time. It will be interesting to see how Win10 changes this.

Should also note I have not had a single AV or the like on any of my personal computers in the last....8 years? Still have yet to have a single infection of any kind, which also goes to show no AV will EVER replace or make up for an educated user, even with the best AV, some people will always find a way to infect a computer.
 
Megalith said:
It still has a long way to go if it intends to compare to the likes of Kaspersky and Bitdefender, however.
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Even at it worst, Windows Defender is miles ahead of Bitdefender, which bogs down PCs to that point that it itself may be regarded as malware.
 
BlueFireIce said:
People can hate on MS all they like, but this is a good thing. I also think MS did great by including this bundled with the OS, some protection is better than nothing for most users. Signs that MS is still improving its AV is also good, they are still pretty new overall the the desktop space with this, and I think they have come a long way in a short time. It will be interesting to see how Win10 changes this.
Click to expand...
I think this has been around since XP days and they finally got around to improving it. Though that maybe because compared to other OS's Windows lacks in basic security but this is mostly due to Legacy applications compatibility. Android and iOS don't come with antivirus software and they fair pretty well.
Should also note I have not had a single AV or the like on any of my personal computers in the last....8 years? Still have yet to have a single infection of any kind, which also goes to show no AV will EVER replace or make up for an educated user, even with the best AV, some people will always find a way to infect a computer.
Click to expand...
I have stopped using AV as well, but mostly cause they cause more problems then they solve. Once in a while I run Malwarebytes to see if there's an infection and I don't remember seeing one for a while.
 
BlueFireIce said:
People can hate on MS all they like, but this is a good thing. I also think MS did great by including this bundled with the OS, some protection is better than nothing for most users. Signs that MS is still improving its AV is also good, they are still pretty new overall the the desktop space with this, and I think they have come a long way in a short time. It will be interesting to see how Win10 changes this.

Should also note I have not had a single AV or the like on any of my personal computers in the last....8 years? Still have yet to have a single infection of any kind, which also goes to show no AV will EVER replace or make up for an educated user, even with the best AV, some people will always find a way to infect a computer.
Click to expand...

QFMFT.
 
Ashbringer said:
I think this has been around since XP days and they finally got around to improving it. Though that maybe because compared to other OS's Windows lacks in basic security but this is mostly due to Legacy applications compatibility. Android and iOS don't come with antivirus software and they fair pretty well.

I have stopped using AV as well, but mostly cause they cause more problems then they solve. Once in a while I run Malwarebytes to see if there's an infection and I don't remember seeing one for a while.
Click to expand...

I also have a few AV/malware scans a run every few months, such as Kaspersky rescue disk etc etc, which I keep on hand because I am still the "fixit" guy for everyone at work, I run them once a month or so on my personal HW, never a single issue.

Defender was available for DL on XP, but it was a simple spyware program, it was included with Vista and on ward, but only got a update to include AV features in Win8 and has now been superseded by MSE altogether.
 
It's funny that microsoft AV didn't start getting good until adblock/noscript on your browser was enough to keep 95% of viruses off your computer in the first place.
 
Armisael said:
It's funny that microsoft AV didn't start getting good until adblock/noscript on your browser was enough to keep 95% of viruses off your computer in the first place.
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Not strange at all. You need, and are using whether you know it or not, multiple layers of defense against malware. AV software is only a final layer to try and catch what gets past all the rest. Other layers include adblock/noscript, things that your router may or may not do that you may or may not know about and that you may or may not have set up, and the things that your ISP does that you don't even know about at varying levels of competency.
 
Seems like the scoring is kind of arbitrary, if this month MSSE is "acceptable" and last month it wasn't:

ydlXwe5.png


(I'm pretty sure this is the data the article refers to since the scoring is 3 points for protection, 5 points for performance and 6 points for usability, matching the total of 14 points mentioned.)

There was also one more false positive than the prior month, and basically the image above and # of false positives is the entire criteria for the low score.

MSSE works fine for me, but I'm not a porn/warez monkey and I don't use IE or FF. If I did use any of those things, I'd definitely need better internet security. hash tag uninfected and lovin' it. :p
 
pxc said:
MSSE works fine for me, but I'm not a porn/warez monkey and I don't use IE or FF. If I did use any of those things, I'd definitely need better internet security. hash tag uninfected and lovin' it. :p
Click to expand...

I am curious about your case for why Firefox requires better security software than whatever browser you are using.
 
evilsofa said:
I am curious about your case for why Firefox requires better security software than whatever browser you are using.
Click to expand...
Go to Bugzilla and lol (or cry) @ types of code execution exploits that even IE blocked years ago. FF is not a secure browser at all and it definitely requires additional Internet security.
 
evilsofa said:
Not strange at all. You need, and are using whether you know it or not, multiple layers of defense against malware. AV software is only a final layer to try and catch what gets past all the rest. Other layers include adblock/noscript, things that your router may or may not do that you may or may not know about and that you may or may not have set up, and the things that your ISP does that you don't even know about at varying levels of competency.
Click to expand...

This! .. add-ons in browser (adblock,ublock,no-sript,ghostery ..etc) .. spywarblaster and/or spybot s&d (the older version) immune function .. virus scanner (windows defender,AVG,Kaspersky ..etc) .. setup a free OpenDNS account and do content blocking .. run Untangle or some other firewall distro in front of all that .. and then do the occasional scans with Malware-Bytes and ADWcleaner ..etc .. and last but not least .. don't don't be a click monkey and surf smart/responsibly .. Don't drink and Surf! :p
 
pxc said:
Go to Bugzilla and lol (or cry) @ types of code execution exploits that even IE blocked years ago. FF is not a secure browser at all and it definitely requires additional Internet security.
Click to expand...

I see you aren't mentioning which browser you use.
 
I have trusted MSE for a few years now and never had any infections. Great to see it is only getting better
 
pxc said:
MSSE works fine for me, but I'm not a porn/warez monkey and I don't use IE or FF. If I did use any of those things, I'd definitely need better internet security. hash tag uninfected and lovin' it. :p
Click to expand...

Why do you think FF is insecure? What browser do you use?
 
Should just add:

I use noscript, PrivacyBadger, HTTPS Everywhere, uBlock Origin, and Avast plugin so feel my FF config is pretty secure compared to whatever browser you use.
 
I hate the POS software that is Bitdefender. Holy hell did it cause havoc with so many f'in computers. I'd rather use any other anti-virus solution.
 
Just a shame that even having MSE/Defender is negated when you have all those machines out there with lapsed one month trials of McAffee etc. on them.

You are not helping guys! That's one of the biggest issue in domestic and even small business IT security.

I get some many new customers coming to me with 18 month old machines still running a 17 month lapsed AV on it.

"Is that okay?"
 
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